Building code modifications for enhanced resiliency

Enhanced resilience should be a key component for buildings located in disaster prone areas to minimise negative environmental impacts, and facilitate security and community continuity. The primary emphasis of current building codes is to provide minimum levels of life safety. Thus, for hurricanes, floods, storm surges, wildland fires and other events where evacuation can be managed in a timely fashion the minimum requirements tend to be lacking with regard to providing adequate property protection and facilitating community preparedness; mitigation; response, relief and recovery. The resulting destruction typically results in excessive amounts of: 1) materials disposed in landfills; 2) resources expended on disaster response, relief, and recovery; 3) time required for services, residents, and businesses to return. The concepts of enhanced resilience are discussed and a set of recommended code criteria are provided for use in disaster prone areas and for designing sustainable buildings.

In Kentucky, a county board votes to shut down a landfill that had long been the source of odor complaints from nearby residents. In Hawaii, residents push a city council to expedite a delayed landfill closure. Outside Beirut, Lebanon, protesters try to block trucks entering a landfill they say should have been closed a week earlier. These events, while certainly newsworthy, obscure the fact that when they are over the real work has to begin.
The EPA’s requirements for closure and post-closure care of...

Remember the garbage barge? Back in 1987, the Mobro 4000, a barge carrying more than 3,000 tons of garbage from Islip, Long Island, famously departed from New York harbor bound for a landfill site in North Carolina because Islip’s own landfill site was nearly full.
The aim was to use the garbage as part of a landfill gas project to generate clean energy. But the barge wasn’t allowed to unload due to fears that its load was dangerous. It ended up sailing for months from port to port, traveling as far...

New contributor to Water/Waste Processing aims to answer readers’ most pressing questions
It’s said the United States has 1,654 landfills, handling more than 250-million tons of trash each year.
One Washington landfill covers a 2,545-acre area, has a 120-million-ton capacity and a 40-year expected trash-receiving life.
The facility, the Republic Services-Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Roosevelt, Wash., receives nonhazardous solid wastes only, predominantly municipal waste, solid (MSW), from throughou...

The site
Non-hazardous waste storage center, located at Villeneuve Loubet, France
270.000 tons of waste processed each year
Located in a rugged area, subject to high temperature differences
Spray system to neutralize odors
ISO 14001 certified
Challenges
To understand and anticipate emissive events
To continuously monitor the emission levels of odors and target gases
To verify compliance with the regulatory thresholds
To monitor the dispersion of odors in the vicinity of the site
To reduce the...

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